Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the traditions you and your family have. That warm, fuzzy feeling of nostalgia that accompanies them is what makes Christmas. What I also love is no family seem to do things the same. Traditions are unique and personal and special to a family. My youngest daughter is only 2 and she is only just aware of Christmas, so our family traditions are just beginning for her. My eldest is 5 so for her Christmas traditions and excitement are starting to really become something she looks forward to.
It’s an exciting time of year.
I thought I would share some of my family traditions before I became a Mum, before life changed and before the craziness of having kids started.
Here they are:
– No chocolate off the tree until Christmas Eve. This drove me flipping insane as a child. I was gagging to nick one and have a secret scoff. The wrath of my Mum would have not been worth it however.
– My and my brother coming down on Christmas Eve, look in our stockings and say, “What’s in my stocking today? Nothing!” Random? Yes. Weird? Tick. But we did it every year
– Watching the Snowman on Christmas Eve and sobbing like a baby (every year without fail).
– Bacon and egg sandwiches and Bucks Fizz for Christmas breakfast. Yummy and fizzy!
– My Mum putting one sprout on my plate. Sometimes it was hidden and I thought I’d got out of having to try and eat that horrible, green ball. Guess again. There it is, smuggled on under the turkey!
– Buying my Step-Dad a rude Christmas card from Card Factory. Anything with farting or any form of toilet humour. Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without one!
– Getting glammed up during the day. Mum and I always made an effort. Make-up, straight hair and a nice outfit.
– Playing the board game Articulate in the evening with a slightly big glass of vodka and diet cola. This usually involves hysteria, a serious amount of mocking and a row between my parents. Totally worth getting a ring-side seat for that one.
I am already starting the Christmas traditions with the girls and it is so strange being a Mum and doing them with my children! They have Christmas Eve boxes and we always have pancakes and scrambled egg for breakfast on Christmas morning. It’s making me excited thinking about it!
What are your Christmas Traditions?
Disclosure – this is a collaborative post.
The last two christmasses with my new hubby and no kids have been a bit strange in terms of allnthe traditions Inuse tonhave, but we have slowly started making our own traditions , one present opened just after midnight, a lunchtime drink at our local which is fab as everyone is extra happy and trying out unusual foods for xmas dinner. This year is kangaroo!! #Twinklytuesday
Ah bless you have made your own together! Lovely. Kangaroo? Brilliant x Enjoy!
Ah I love this post, it makes me think about my Christmas traditions before my little man came along…But he’s five now and all our new traditions are so much fun too! Loved this post xx #twinklytuesday
Ah how lovely bet he’s so excited!! x
Sounds like a really fun Christmas! I love reading about how others spend the festive period. #TwinklyTuesday
Thanks lots x
Oh my gosh it’s like reading my childhood traditions! We had the exact same other than the brother in the stocking one, I don’t have a brother. It’s nice to remember how we grew up with our Christmas and I’m so excited like you to start our own traditions, some will probably be the same, hiding the veg especially on my partners plate! It’ll be lovely when our children look back at their Christmas traditions we set for them x #twinklytuesday
Ah really? How weird and cool! It’s great starting our own now we are Mum’s eh? x
I love the sound of your Christmas, apart from not eating the tree chocolates until christmas eve, I could not cope with that! Ahh you got to love a heated argument over a board games, always happens with my parents too!xx #TwinklyTuesday
haha too hard to resist eh? x
I try to keep up some of the traditions that I had when I was younger but I will try and make new ones with my little family. The no eating the chocolate on the tree until Christmas Eve was one of ours too hehe. I particularly love a good game during the evening nothing beats it!!! 🙂 #twinklytuesday
The no choc off the tree is a good one!!x
Great traditions. Haha my mum did the sprout thing too, she still does to this day and I still don’t eat it!! #twinklytuesday xx
Flipping sprouts eh? x
Love your pre-mum traditions for Christmas and it’s so much fun to start up new ones as a family too. We always get glammed up for Christmas and I remember the no eating chocolate off the tree rule too! My sister and I always used to wake around 4am, open our stockings and watch a film called “Two Weeks With Love” (it’s a musical with Debbie Reynolds and the most non-Christmassy film ever so goodness only knows where that particular tradition came from!) before waking up our parents. Thanks for reminding me of those memories again! 🙂 #twinklytuesday
I love getting glammed up! I’ve not heard of that film but it’s great just having that tradition every year! Ah would be fab to be a kid again x
Sounds like you guys know how to have fun at Xmas time! Love how you watch the same film every year and still end up sobbing, I’m the same 😉 Merry Christmas lovely, have a fab one xx #thetruthabout
haha so soppy I know! Merry Christmas too x
Christmas traditions are such a nice thing and so unique to each family. I’ve been away from my family for 5 years and I didn’t notice how special they were until I didn’t have them. I’m so excited to be enjoying Christmas Day with them this year X #twinklytuesday
Aww 5 years is a while. I bet you can’t wait! x
Aw lovely traditions hon and it is so.funny how people.do things differently isn’t it? We have always been a one present at a time family but I remember at an exes one Christmas when everyone took their presents and just opened them all so there was no opportunity to say thank you and it felt so.weird to me as was not what I was used to! It’s so lovely making your own traditions as a family isn’t it? Xx
Ah I like the one present at a time; you can really savour it can’t you! Bet it felt really weird everyone rushing in x
Ah I love these! I have a two year old, can’t wait to start some traditions of our own 🙂
Me too! Enjoy x
Ah these are like young adult traditions – the best kind I reckon! Although ours as children involved coming downstairs (me & my sister) very early Christmas morning to find our ‘stocking’s (pillow cases) spilling out onto a sofa each! Later on it was traditional to listen to the Back to the Future soundtrack while decorating the tree; we always have smoked salmon on toast (my dad’s home-made brown bread) with a Bucks Fizz on Christmas morning – oh and I do miss those slightly tipsy evening board games! 🙂 The one thing we never ever did was watch the Queen’s speech – to this day I have never seen a single Queen’s speech… (Off with her head!!) 🙂 Thanks for linking up to #thetruthabout Xx
Some really great family traditions there! We agree about the Snowman Buck’s Fizz…..even a little drop for me 😉 #TwinklyTuesday x
I love reading about holiday traditions because so few families have the same ones. I tried to keep so many of the traditions I remembered from when I was a child going with my three boys. In fact I just wrote a post a week or so back about how ours have changed as our kids have gotten older now and have more of a say in what they do and don’t enjoy.
Everyone is so different eh? It must be good when the kids start to make their own x
Love this post! I like the tradition you and your brother had about checking the stocking Christmas eve – the most random traditions are usually the best ones 🙂 #TwinklyTuesday
Debbie
Family traditions are best so I feel alot of pressure inventing them for my children! #bestandworst
I love hearing about other people’s traditions, and you have some lovely ones here that I’m sure your little lady will inherit from you – especially “The lone sprout!” I bet you end up hiding one on her plate too in the years to come hehe.
Love your family picture! Looks like you were all having a great time.
Merry Christmas to you and your lovely family.
Dawn x
#bestandworst
Like you I am very excited about starting our own family traditions. Fizz for breakfast will definitely feature! #bestandworst
Sounds like you have some really fond memories of childhood Christmases with your family – I love that you all play board game together in the evening. My mother is a Very Big Fan of Christmas, so she always went above and beyond to make them special for us with lots of family traditions too 🙂 #bestandworst
Ahh the good old one sprout routine. I still hold this tradition today. Even my team Christmas dinner consisted of one sprout.
I love dressing up for Christmas Day, it’s good to see its not just a scouse thing. I’m looking forward to creating new traditions with Henry this year. Maybe 2 sprouts to encourage healthy eating :0)
#bestandworst Renee @peonieandme
Sounds like lovely and fun traditions. We are also just starting out as a family and this will be our first Christmas with Caspian so I can’t wait to build our traditions in years to come. They’ll probably be a mix of English and Danish though 🙂 Merry Christmas, lovely. #bestandworst
Nadia – ScandiMummy x
Loving the sound of bacon & egg sandwiches! #bestandworst
Ha ha ha I do that one sprout thing to my daughter too. She hates them and it winds her up a treat lol. I m not putting chocolates on our tree this year because my two little ones and the dog will just eat them all in two se ones, foil and all and I don’t fancy an emergency trip to the hospital/vets over Christmas because one of them have foil stuck in their tummies 😉
Thanks for hosting #bestandworst. Have a great Christmas x
We play articulate every year too! It is my far my favourite board game and it is even more hilarious after a drink or two haha! I am so looking forward to building our own traditions now we have our own family #bestandworst
Love your christmas traditions. I don’t think we have any I do want to start some with Logan though and probably from next year when he’s a little bit more aware of what is going on
#bestandworst
Yep I think that sounds perfect x
We had no chocolates off tree until 23rd December, but it would have been Christmas Eve if my sister’s birthday wasn’t 23rd Dec! Always watched The Snowman too! We’ve done our own Christmas every Christmas since toddler born. Obviously not really got to being able to have games & things like that yet, but will be able to watch films this year. & going to try to see Santa’s sleigh (ISS) this year on Christmas Eve for first time. #bestandworst Happy Christmas!
Isn’t it funny how the traditions that wound us up when we were young are the ones we replicate in our own homes when we get older! #bestandworst
Ahhh fab, can’t beat a Christmas tradition. Ours are buying a new decoration every years but this time I now will be letting the children choose 🙂 Also watching a Christmas film, I adore The Holiday so make sure I watch that every year. Love the game articulate, haven’t played that in ages will have to dig it out. #bestandworst x
Are you sure our mums aren’t secret twins??! Pretty much all of those traditions were identical in our house too!!! Before babies, me and my husband went to Oxford for a night in the run up to Christmas. We did that every year from the first year we were together. But we did it this year for the first time in a couple of years, as last year MA was too little to be left, the year before I was heavily pregnant with MA, and the year before that I was expecting DT in December! So doing it this year was really special and fun! Last year both boys were obsessed with The Snowman, and its been on a few times this year, so I’m looking forward to making that a Christmas Eve tradition with them!
#bestandworst
What a lovely list of family traditions… we got that Santa sock too when I was still a kid, and it’s always exciting checking them everyday. Lovely photo of you and the family! #bestandworst
Ah I love these, I remember my husband’s reaction when he spent his first Christmas with us, I could see he was wondering what he’d got himself into! You can’t beat your own family’s traditions, no matter how bonkers. Becky x #bestandworst
Merry Christmas to you and yours Sarah
Love this! My brother and I always had a hard time staying away from Christmas chocolate, but by lunchtime on Chrosymas day it was almost gone!
haha it’s very tempting x
Cant beat the christmas bacon breakfast! and the board games! they normally take some force to get everyone playing but we get there in the end and its always fun!
haha it really is a giggle x
Ah these sound so similar to our traditions growing up. We never had bacon sandwiches which I always wanted – but we did have dinner around 1.30, so I probably wouldn’t have wanted it! Me and my mum always used to get glammed up to and I still do – I love making an effort and putting on a special outfit for the day. Have a great one! bestandworst xx
You too! xx
Love these traditions! We too have Buck’s Fizz for breakfast and my mum still tries to give me sprouts now lol! #bestandworst
haha it’s a must! x
Aww I love that you get dressed up as a tradition! I’m going to have to steal this one, that would be so much fun getting all dolled up with my Mom and sisters.
Our tradition for Christmas was to sing, ‘Oh Christmas Tree,’ while we put the first ornaments on the tree together.
Another one, which was more a tradition while I was at University, was taking a shot of tequila or vodka for every ornament you put on the tree. : ) You could only get through 5-6 ornaments though….. haha!
hahaha I love this!! May have to do next year and pass out x
Creating your own Christmas traditions is the best! Enjoy! Merry Christmas 🙂
Thanks and you Mrs Tubbs x
Awww lovely traditions, merry Christmas to you and your family X #Bestandworst
Thanks so much and to you x
What lovely traditions! I love it when traditions are passed from one generation to the next and are still cherished. We usually have Christmas singing and silly games on the Eve and a big lunch on the Day itself. #bestandworst
It is lovely isn’t it. I can’t wait this years x
What a lovely post! Family traditions are always lovely #bestandworst xx
Thanks Kirsty x
Your Christmases sounded quite like ours, and so much fun! I don’t remember checking our stockings Xmas eve, in saying that I think we only brought them out of the box then. I love getting dressed up for Xmas dinner, wearing a new outfit and I’m super excited about it this year as I haven’t had many excusing to get properly dressed up this year, it’s been boots and jeans/leggings all the way!!
Enjoy making your new traditions and have the most fabulous Christmas X
#bestandworst